{"id":164,"date":"2019-09-19T21:48:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/press-releases\/democracy-advocates-call-for-the-closure-of-dark-money-loopholes-in-ohio\/"},"modified":"2019-09-19T21:48:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:48:14","slug":"democracy-advocates-call-for-the-closure-of-dark-money-loopholes-in-ohio","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/press\/democracy-advocates-call-for-the-closure-of-dark-money-loopholes-in-ohio\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy Advocates Call for the Closure of Dark Money Loopholes in Ohio"},"template":"","class_list":["post-164","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"At a press conference today, advocates from the League of Women Voters of Ohio and Common Cause Ohio were joined by allies to speak in favor of improved disclosure laws in Ohio.","featured_image":5078,"press_type":146,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":7876}","{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":7876}","{\"site_id\":\"70\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":165}"],"related_issues":false,"related_work":false,"location":38},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">COLUMBUS: At a press conference today, advocates from the League of Women Voters of Ohio and Common Cause Ohio were joined by allies to speak in favor of improved disclosure laws in Ohio. \u201cDark Money\u201d from undisclosed sources is behind an ad campaign against the attempt to referendum House Bill 6. This ad is designed to confuse and intimidate voters and highlights the need to shine a light on secret money.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Disclosure provides the sunlight needed to hold candidates and campaigns accountable and to help voters make informed decisions,\" said William Hershey. Hershey is a former Columbus Bureau Chief for the Dayton Daily News and a former Washington correspondent for the Akron Beacon Journal.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The aggressive decline-to-sign campaign demonstrates that Ohio desperately needs to update its campaign finance laws, which still do not reflect the new landscape after the US Supreme Court\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Citizens United v. FEC ruling<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\"Dark money magnifies the voices of special interests while misleading, confusing, and even scaring voters,\" said Deborah Cooper of Worthington. \"When citizens cannot trust the information they receive, their voices fade along with our democratic process.\" Cooper is a retired public information manager who participated in the statewide signature collection for the citizen initiative to end gerrymandering in Ohio.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group called for Ohio\u2019s disclosure laws to be updated to include disclosure of the sources of funding for corporate activities in our elections. They specifically cited SB240, a disclosure bill introduced by then Senator Jon Husted that passed the Ohio Senate unanimously in 2010 but was not brought up in the House. Several of the legislators who vote affirmatively for SB240 are still serving in elected office in Ohio.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cFor our democracy to be strong, voters need to be informed, but dark money loopholes allow bad actors to intimidate and confuse the public with impunity,\u201d said Jen Miller, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters. \u201cIt\u2019s time for the Ohio General Assembly to finally update campaign finance laws so that everyday Ohioans know where electoral campaigns are getting their money, how much they\u2019ve raised, and how they are spending it.\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOhioans should be able to consider who is funding political advertisements,\u201d said Catherine Turcer, Executive Director of Common Cause Ohio, \u201cThe source of campaign information helps voters examine the motivation of ads. Shining the light on \u2018dark money\u2019 will also encourage those funding these egregious ads to be more accountable.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nHere are two fact sheets provided to the press:\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/09\/DARK-in-energy-take-2-.docx.pdf\">How Dark Money is Polluting Ohio's Energy Policy<\/a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2019\/09\/SB-240-factsheet-formerly-240-and-electeds.pdf\">A Primer on Dark Money<\/a>\r\n\r\n<b>Common Cause<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 1920, <\/span><b>the League of Women Voters of Ohio<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has been a leader in empowering citizens and defending democracy. LWVO encourages active participation in elections by providing nonpartisan information about candidates, issues, and how to vote, while protecting and expanding people's Ohioans to elections and their government.\u00a0<\/span>"}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Democracy Advocates Call for the Closure of Dark Money Loopholes in Ohio - Common Cause Ohio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/press-releases\/democracy-advocates-call-for-the-closure-of-dark-money-loopholes-in-ohio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democracy Advocates Call for the Closure of Dark Money Loopholes in Ohio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/press\/democracy-advocates-call-for-the-closure-of-dark-money-loopholes-in-ohio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Ohio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/GettyImages-935002924.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1145\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"861\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/press-releases\/democracy-advocates-call-for-the-closure-of-dark-money-loopholes-in-ohio\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/press-releases\/democracy-advocates-call-for-the-closure-of-dark-money-loopholes-in-ohio\/\",\"name\":\"Democracy Advocates Call for the Closure of Dark Money Loopholes in Ohio - 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